Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AI NEWS—New Jersey Attorney General and Division on Civil Rights announce algorithmic discrimination guidance, (Jan 13, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

On January 16, the Office of the Attorney General and DCR also will host a related virtual program.

Late last week, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, along with the Division on Civil Rights (DCR), announced the launch of a new Civil Rights and Technology Initiative intended to address the risks of discrimination and bias-based harassment stemming from the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies. The initiative will also provide guidance to the public and regulated entities about how the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) applies to the use of these technologies.

Guidance and innovation lab. Among other things, they have published a guidance document explaining how the LAD applies to algorithmic discrimination. It provides examples, describes how the use of AI and other automated decision-making tools can result in bias and discrimination, and explains how DCR applies the LAD’s prohibition against discrimination to the use of these advanced technologies.

Platkin and DCR also announced that, as part of the Initiative, DCR has launched a Civil Rights Innovation Lab aimed at leveraging technology responsibly to advance DCR’s mission to prevent, address, and remedy discrimination.

What’s included. The guidance explains that the use of automated decision-making tools, if not carefully designed, evaluated, and tested, could result in disparate treatment discrimination, disparate impact discrimination, or the failure to provide or account for reasonable accommodations. For example, with regard to accommodations, this could implicate a tool used to measure applicants’ typing speed that cannot measure typing from a non-traditional keyboard or a tool used to monitor productivity that flags atypical or unsanctioned breaks.

The guidance also clarifies that regulated entities may be liable for algorithmic discrimination resulting from their use of an automated decision-making tool developed by a third party.

Virtual program. On January 16, the Office of the Attorney General and DCR also will host a related virtual program – Innovation and Civil Rights: The Risks and Benefits of Emerging Technologies.

“We are launching our Civil Rights and Technology Initiative and the Civil Rights Innovation Lab to support responsible innovation in our state and address the risk of discrimination stemming from the use of new technologies,” said Sundeep Iyer, Director of the Division on Civil Rights. “With the issuance of new guidance and the launch of our Innovation Lab, we look forward to working with all New Jerseyans to ensure that innovative new technologies are deployed responsibly and do not result in discriminatory outcomes.”

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